Friday, April 21, 2006

Manon’s Poetic journey

As I was doing my daily lunchtime news browsing today, I came across an unusual story of “Manon Ossevoort”, a young beautiful Dutch lady who is crossing the world with her green tractor, in a breathtaking journey began in Amsterdam. After passing through Belgium, France, Italy, Balkans, and north Africa, she’s now heading toward cape town in South Africa and eventually Cape of Good Hope, where she’s supposed to hitch a ride to Antarctica and her final destination, South Pole.
In this amazing adventure, she collects the dreams of every individual she meets on little scarps of paper. Dreams will accompany her to the end of the world (as she says) where they will be somehow magically fulfilled.

I have to admit that the sophisticated idea and the extraordinary courage and determination behind this exquisitely simple childish “Petit-Prince-type” dream was so poetic that I couldn’t stop my tears from falling.

The joyous moment was completed as I received an E-mail from my adorable friend “Bahareh” who has just recently left her well-paid job in Montreal to join “Engineers without border” in Burkina Faso, a country which reminds me of my childhood neighbor and best friend and elementary school class mate, “Behzad” who also left his town, Chicago, to teach Mathematics to unprivileged children there, in Burkina Faso.

However, this state of ecstasy was soon replaced with a stark sense of uselessness due to an inevitable comparison between what these people are doing with their lives and my valuable contribution to humanity!

Being unable to work on little extravagant details of some billionaire’s private jet, at least for couple of hours, was, I think, my conscience’s pathetic attempt to deal with the sense of guilt and shame that I was going through.

I hope the combination of “Not everybody should go to Africa to be useful for humanity” mantra and watching extremely gorgeous and talented “Sophie Milman” live in Spectrum tonight, would make me feel better.

For God’s sake, those poor billionaires truly need their glorious private jets and they need them on time, right?!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

This beautiful American lady singing Iranian folklore songs with a cute accent

A point

Have you noticed that so far, the biggest trouble that our gorgeous! president has created for the western countries, is the excruciating pain, almost all the politicians, reporters and anchors go through every time they want to pronounce his name?
Listen to this…it’s one of the most fair and non-judgemntal analysis on Iran

A great day for our country!

This is the day my friends!
We finally got what we were fighting for, the “Right” of enrichment of uranium in our own soil! The one and only remaining right in the list of our unfulfilled rights such as freedom, social justice, free speech, privacy, dignity and so on.

I really can not stop admiring the regime for having such an extraordinary control over public’s opinion so they can persuade the majority to almost unanimously back up one of the most economically-catastrophic, politically-suicidal and environmentally-disastrous plan in our recent history.

And also my deep admiration to people of Iran whose relentless efforts to protect their brain cells, almost as a national heritage, from any sort damage caused by over-using, finally paid off in this glorious day!


Well...

if international sanctions are going to be applied on us,
If we are the world’s most unpopular country, ahead of US and Israel (and, we magically managed to do that without invading anywhere or attacking anyone),
If they’re going to bomb our infrastructures,
If our land’s going to be their test lab for their so-called “tactical nuclear weapon” (Although I still can not convince myself that anybody could be possibly stupid enough to use that!),
If our people are going to get killed as collateral damage (and even that would be the best-case scenario! (e.g. take a look at our neighbor!),

At least we have a president we can be proud of




Just after the Islamic revolution toppled the Shah’s regime and people were still in a state of euphoria, a German reporter wrote (and I’m paraphrasing): “The Titanic of Asia is sinking but her passengers are happy”.

They say “History repeats itself” and in the Middle East, it does that, much too quickly!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Quote:

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Well, since I’m not in the mood of writing, I’m going to continue with the quotes for a while, so..that’s the quote of day:

Nothing improves with age!

Quote of the day

Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Roll the Rim!


I don’t call it “gambling problem” and I certainly don’t feel the need to call those numbers they put on top of slot machines but last year, I almost developed an allergy to Caffeine as much as I drank Tim Horton’s stupid Coffee just to be able to “Roll the Rim”. The same thing I do with Lotto tickets. I know that statistically, the chance of winning Lotto is much less than to be hit by lightning, twice in one day! but somehow, somebody wins it every couple of weeks and that person could be me.

Anyway, as if it doesn’t suck enough to lose, and it doesn’t suck even more to be told “you lost!” in a polite way, they write it in two different languages!

La grande messe and Requiem

Mozart’s “La grande messe en ut mineur” and “Requiem” in “Basilic Notre-Dame”, could I possibly ask for more?!
It was magnificent. A dream came true.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Quote of the day

Woody Allen (in Annie Hall): A relationship I think is, like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies!

Thank you for smoking

It was smart, funny, sarcastic and very well executed. Cinematography was magnificent and dialogues (and also monologues!), although full of statistics, but not a bit boring (credit for this one, obviously goes to Christopher Buckley).

Despite all of that, I still couldn’t convince myself to put the movie in my favorite movie list and I don’t know why. All I know is, there was something missing in that film.

Anyway, it was a pleasant experience. “Circle of dead merchants” with all those witty dialogues is hilarious and the scene [don’t read this line if you haven’t seen the movie yet] in which the kidnapers put the naked body of Nick Naylor, covered with nicotine patches, on Abraham Lincoln’s statue in a way that cleverly resembles Michelangelo’s “The Pieta”, is one of the most satirical and intelligent scene that I’ve ever seen. Way to go!

Quote of the day

(Camus:)

Women are all that we’re ever going to know of paradise on earth!

Global warming!

Not even ten years ago, only a bunch of scientists were worried about it alongside with a handful of super bright politicians but now, even among the most retarded leaders in the world, there is no doubt the danger we’re facing and if there is a debate, it’s more about the effectiveness of the methods proposed by Kyoto protocol, not with the fact that Global warming is real and it’s damn serious! Well, maybe except Mr. Bush who still believes in Apocalypse more than he does in Global warming! (Although the second one is not much far from a Jesusless version of the first one!)

So, why nothing’s happening?

The fact is, although the threat is serious, and it’s getting more serious by the minutes, any major effort to reduce Green house gases by considerable amount, will lead to both dramatic changes in our life style and visible economical slow down and since most of the countries who produce the major portion of the green-house gases are being ruled democratically, no political party is willing to risk its popularity by implementing regulations which would create unemployment, higher taxes, inflation and major life style changes but eventually would save our planet from a total disaster!

I believe the only possible way is to educate people to an extent in which, not only they ask the measures to be imposed, but they punish those who don’t have a solid program to tackle the issue, by not voting for them.

As soon as the politicians feel that people do care about it and they are ready to accept the consequences, they certainly will act accordingly. At last, nobody is so anxious to see the end of the world so soon! (Sorry dear witnesses of Jehovah! I totally forgot about you!)

Public awareness in England, forced the somehow reformed Conservatives (who traditionally don’t care about these kinds of things) and their leader, David Cameron to put the environmental issues on top of their agenda. In Germany, people repeatedly show their enthusiasm by supporting the Green party in elections and in the US, some states, obviously in east and west coast, applied measures to control the emission, regardless of federal government’s indifference.

The good news is, as public awareness increases, governments seem to act more and more responsibly but there is also a bad news:

Tomorrow could be too late!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Vive la France!

Part one:
It’s official. Last night, “Jacques Chirac”, “President de la Republique”, scraped the new labor bill which had created massive protests throughout France. This humiliating defeat for the government of “de Villepan”, proved that France, at least for the moment, is simply Un-reformable.

Huge rate of unemployment (25% among young people under the age of 27) and sluggish rate of economical growth depict a very gloomy future for France’s economy which makes it more difficult for France to compete, even inside the European union with Europe’s well-reformed states like England, Ireland and Spain and some super fit newcomers like Latvia and Estonia with eye-catching growth rates.

The problem is, losing the top seed, will not only hurt their national pride, but will seriously reduce their effect in making critical decisions inside the European Union that could threaten some of their somehow unfair advantages, like receiving 70 percent of the Europe’s agricultural subsidies, despite massive oppositions from some of the states. The subsidies without which, France’s agricultural sector will simply collapse!

Personally, in this war between Coke and Wine, with huge amount of pessimism, I will support the wine side! but honestly, the scenario is not that black and white. England for example, in the past couple of years, has managed to go through comprehensive reforms and keep the exceptional economical growth rate while increasing the budget for social services dramatically, thanks to my favorite politician, UK’s chancellor and finance minister, Mr. Gordon Brown who also played a bold role in convincing wealthy nations to relieve a huge portion of Africa’s debts, just couple of months ago.

Anyway, sooner or later, France should start massive reforms just to be able to survive in the global market. We should wait and see how long the mass politics will be able to block the government. I truly hope that when they finally start, it’s not too late!

Part two:
If somebody asks you “What is the most popular dish in France?” what would be your answer? Steak-frite? Cassoulet?

According to a recent survey, the correct answer is “Couscous”! Way to go North African immigrants


An American Conclusion: Well, apparently you don’t need a powerful Nazi army and a Blitzkrieg to force the French to surrender; it can be easily done with a handful of student unions or a bowl of Couscous! Vive la France!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A race for perfection

Recently, the increasing number of people who have unnecessary plastic surgeries performed on their bodies, forced the British health department to issue a guideline, asking plastic surgeons to send people with severe symptoms of “BDD” to psychoanalysis instead of surgery room.
BDD or “Body Dysmorphic Disorder” is a preoccupation with an imagined physical defect in appearance or an exaggerated concern about a minimal defect which results in deep dissatisfaction and in acute cases, can lead to depression or even suicide. Naturally, plastic surgery is heavily abused by those with BDD, in a futile attempt to get prettier and considering the fact that just in England alone, some 600,000 people are assumed to have BDD, makes us think more seriously about it.
First of all, I’m not going to blame the media since it would undermine the ability of human being to think, but the effect of the media, is undeniable in creating such kind of disorders by publicizing aesthetic perfectionism.
Just think about all those magazine covers, TV ads and movies featuring almost perfect people all the time. I mean, just watching one of those super hot Victoria Secret’s TV adds with all those gorgeous goddess with their perfect heavenly bodies, cat-walking around in magnificent underwear, is enough to shake the confidence of any woman without chronic Narcissism (They also create another kind of disorder in men called ORBBM or “OONAA RO BEDIN BEH MAN!”)

And it is not only confined to women. The number of calorie-watchers, Gymoholic! men is increasing dramatically as a result of all those six-pack abs, Greek statue-type cover-boys (do we have this word at all? Like cover-girl?).
I’m not suggesting, like what some girls in a defensive reaction do!, that “these are all fake” or “all these models are ugly without make up or special effects”. I’m sure most of them are still very much attractive and voluptuous even in a pajama and with a morning face. The issue is not that whether they are beautiful or not, cause they certainly are. The question is, are they really aesthetically perfect?

First, like normal people, they have good days and bad days. They also have good hours and bad hours throughout a day. What we see is them at their best!

Second, their body has been fully prepared for the photo shoot.

Third, a professional fashion photographer exactly knows how he should cover up for all the imperfections of a model, by using the right filter, proper lighting, appropriate camera angle and finally, proper make up and that’s just the beginning because the outcome is also extensively edited by photo-editing softwares.
In other word, their beauty is not fake but their aesthetic perfection is. Regular people are encouraged to get to a point that doesn’t exist hence frustration is guaranteed.

Advertisement for drugs and cosmetic goods against certain defects is another problem–generating issue since in order to sell their products, they sometimes magnify a minor defect to an extent that the consumer believes it actually is a huge embarrassing problem that should be covered by any means. Put a normal teenager in front of TV to be bombarded by such kind of adds (by the way it’s not just TV adds, it’s a culture which is going on even in TV series and main stream movies), developing a BDD seems inevitable! It’s no wonder that even some beauty contest winners (including a miss world finalist) are among the victims.
The good news is, I happen to know the cure!
We have a friend called Kasra. Fortunately, He has the exact opposite disorder; I like to call it “Excessive Self-idolizing Disorder (ESD)”, in which his brain automatically erases any discomforting incoming signals (from his eyes or ears) about his appearance alongside with the memories of failures, embarrassments or mistakes in the past decade! I genuinely believe, using his DNA, there would be a definitive cure for BDD and since I’ve seen how he’s been going through a lot recently for a few bucks more! and considering the financial benefits of this research, I’m sure he’ll be pleased to help researchers, not to mention his enthusiasm for helping the humanity!

P.S. I have a feeling that he’s going to donate some of the financial benefits to Colombia! I don’t know why, but it’s just a feeling that I have!

Monday, April 10, 2006

Who is really responsible?

Recently, “Jacob Zuma”, former deputy president of South Africa was tried for raping one of his family member’s wife, knowing she is infected with HIV. He denied the rape charge while accepting having sexual intercourse with the infected woman and when he was asked that how come he dared to sleep with an HIV positive woman without using any protection, he replied:“The risk was not that high, considering the fact that I took a shower afterwards!”

Ironically, apart from being the second most powerful man in South Africa, he was the “Chairperson of the South African National Aids Council” for a considerable amount of time in a country in which five million people are infected with HIV, highest rate of infection per capita in the world!

This is the problem of Africa! And not only Africa, but any poor undeveloped nation on this planet. We can blame it forever on imperialists and colonists and wealthy nations, stealing resources and creating conflicts and toppling national figures and supporting mindless senseless dictators, but honestly are they solely responsible for the never-ending list of problems in poor countries, from war and genocide to hunger and poverty?

When the man in charge of fighting against AIDS, in a country which is one of the rare examples of a real democracy in Africa, knows about the subject less than what a high school teenager should know, do we really need any “Conspiracy theory” to explain why South Africa’s efforts to tackle the most devastating plight of the country have failed? When the second most powerful man in the country, who was supposed to replace the actual president “Thabo Mbeki”, by the end of the three years period, is being tried for sexual assault, is it any wonder why a woman is raped every 26 seconds (yes! That’s not a typo!) in South Africa?!

As long as there is stupidity and prejudice to this extent, those who are abusing the situations shouldn’t be considered the main culprit. Ignorance is not an excuse, or at least, it shouldn’t be!

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Aux Plaisirs de Bacchus


Bacchus was the Roman God of wine, somehow equated with the Greek God Dionysus but that’s not what I wanted to write about. “Aux Plaisirs de Bacchus” is a super charming store in Bernard street, (Which is one of my favorite streets in Montreal and I think you’ve got it by now), specialized in wine accessories and more! From Books to wall-mounted old-fashioned bottle-opener, from Czech crystals to Absinth fountains, you can find anything Winy! there. I even found a fabulous Aroma-box (Anybody who has seen the movie “French Kiss” knows exactly what I’m talking about), that despite my will, I’m not going to spend 600$ for it.
And finally, in this glorious place, I’ve found stemware racks I’d searched everywhere for and hopefully, I should finish making my bar by tonight. I will write about my cute little bar, as soon as it’s ready.
So I drink my glass of port to Bacchus. Not the God, the Store!

The life of a bullet

I watched “lord of war” on DVD last night and I have to admit that my intellectual sense! was way off when it had suggested the movie must be a typical senseless Hollywood action, first time I’d seen the trailer.

It was SMART, it was entertaining, it was marvelously-executed, and most of all, it had a POINT and if the storyline wasn’t so predictable, with so much Hollywood cliché, it could have been even a masterpiece!
Anyway, I think “Lord of War” was the most thoughtful way to inform the public about what’s going on in the filthy world of arms trade without forcing them to watch a dead-boring documentary!

I just can’t stop admiring the opening scene, a bullet’s amazing trip, from the factory to a young African’s brain!